A Study On Address Term Translation In Red Sorghum From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Address terms are considered as a subcategory of cultural-loaded words,which can be used to forge images of characters,serve to the communication purpose and reflect the social culture and background.Address term translation considers language and cultural difference accordingly.This paper attempts to analyze the address term in Red Sorghum,one of the literary works by Chinese novelist Mo Yan in which address terms are abundant,reflecting the personal character and cultural deposit during the Anti-Japanese War in Gaomi district of Shandong Province,China.These terms are often applied to color the effect of expression in literary works.The translator Goldblatt makes this masterpiece prevail widely in the Western world.In the meanwhile,the discussion on the mistranslation has roused a hot discussion in the domestic filed of translation research.Functional Skopos theory breaks the equivalence in form and holds the thought that functional equivalence is the core in translation and the position of target readers is dominant.This paper attempts to evaluate the Goldblatt's translation of the Chinese address terms in Red Sorghum,which is a branch of culture-loaded words,from the perspective of Skopos theory,in describing the translation methods adopted for reaching the functional equivalence between the Chinese and English texts.Using both the qualitative and quantitative analysis method,five categories of address terms are discussed.The translation of names mainly adopts transliteration,literal translation,idiomatic translation,and deletion.The translation of kinship terms mainly adopts literal translation,imitation,deletion and variation translation.The translation of title and general social address terms mainly adopt literal translation and variation translation.Zero translation adopts paraphrase.Other address terms such as vulgar language,literal translation is also adopted.Since Skopos theory predicts most of those cases,it's safe to say that the functional Skopos theory provides an instruction and theoretical approach in literary work translation based on the frequently used domesticating strategy.In the meanwhile,the application order of three principal rules of Skopos theory requires a further study and proof.Skopos rule is always prior to the other two rules,which highly controls the functional equivalence in translation.Fidelity rule does not rank last shown in the evidence of translation of full namesor idioms in that the address terms are independent from the context,acting as “symbols.”The promotion of Fidelity rule is still based on the overall coherence and purpose of translators.Taken as a whole,functional Skopos theory is applicable to address term translation,providing instructions to the literary work translation.